World’s End murders: Angus Sinclair trial attempt

The World's End pub in Edinburgh. Picture: TSPL

JOHN ROBERTSON

An attempt to make Angus Sinclair stand trial again for the infamous World’s End murders 35 years ago has started at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh.

The Crown wants Sinclair, acquitted at a trial in 2007, to become the first person to face a fresh prosecution under new double jeopardy law.

News
Pix by Danny Lawson.
Helen Scott was murdered after drinking in the Worlds End Pub. A man appeared in court today after being charged with her murder.

During a preliminary hearing, Sinclair’s QC announced that the move to put him back in the dock would be fought, and that one of the principal issues was whether “new” evidence against him had been unearthed, as claimed by the prosecution.

Sinclair was not at the hearing, his attendance having been excused because of “a medical condition.” Another hearing was set for 14 May.

The Lord Advocate, Frank Mulholland, QC, said he wanted progress to be made.

“It has been 35 years. The families (of the victims) are anxious to have finality in this matter,” he told the court.

Sinclair, 67, who was then 32, was accused of raping and murdering Christine Eadie and Helen Scott, both 17, in 1977 while acting with his brother-in-law, Gordon Hamilton, then 22 and now dead.

The teenagers had been drinking with two men in the World’s End pub in the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, on Saturday, 15 October, 1977. Their bodies were discovered the following day in East Lothian. Ms Eadie was naked and was on the foreshore at Gosford Bay, near Aberlady. The partially-clothed Ms Scott lay in a field about seven miles inland near Haddington. Each had her hands tied behind her back, and each had been strangled with a ligature.

A trial in 2007 was halted when the judge, Lord Clarke, ruled there was insufficient evidence against Sinclair, and he was acquitted.

Until the Double Jeopardy (Scotland) Act was passed in 2011, it was not possible to try anyone again after they had been acquitted at a first trial.

However, the new legislation allowed a second trial if new and compelling evidence which substantially strengthened the case had come to light.

Sinclair is the first person to face a possible second trial under the reforms.

The process involves an application by the Lord Advocate to three judges to set aside Sinclair’s acquittal, and authority to prosecute him again for the murders.

Mr Mulholland said the Crown was ready to submit its case for a retrial to Lord Carloway, the Lord Justice-Clerk, sitting with Lord Menzies and Lady Smith.

“There are hurdles that require to be overcome and that involves the court making a determination on whether the case has been substantially strengthened by new evidence, and whether it is highly likely that a reasonable jury would convict on the new evidence with the original evidence,” he stated.

The new evidence was not specified, and Mr Mulholland said he anticipated an order postponing its reporting when it was discussed at a future hearing. He indicated that similar orders had been imposed in similar cases in England.

The defence counsel, Ian Duguid, QC, explained Sinclair’s absence, and added: “I have taken instructions, and the application is opposed.”

He said it would be unrealistic for a second hearing to take place on 23 April, a date provisionally fixed, because the defence was still carrying out investigations.

“One matter under investigation is whether this, in fact, constitutes new evidence at all. That is the principal inquiry at this stage. At the original trial, there was DNA evidence available. An investigation is necessary to identify whether or not this new evidence actually advances that evidence or is the same evidence discernible by new techniques,” said Mr Duguid.

A forensic scientist who had been a defence witness in 2007 was no longer available, and efforts were being made to find an alternative witness, added Mr Duguid. It was only a month since the Crown’s application had been announced and “these inquiries are at an early stage.”

Lord Carloway said the judges were prepared to fix 30 April as the date by which the defence had to set out the scope of its challenge to the application. A further procedural hearing would take place on 14 May.

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Editors' Code of Practice.
If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the
Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the IPSO by
clicking here.

Edinburgh Evening News provides news, events and sport features from the Edinburgh area. For the best up to date information relating to Edinburgh and the surrounding areas visit us at Edinburgh Evening News regularly or bookmark this page.

For you to enjoy all the features of this website Edinburgh Evening News requires permission to use cookies.

Find Out More ▼

What is a Cookie?

What is a Flash Cookie?

Can I opt out of receiving Cookies?

About our Cookies

Cookies are small data files which are sent to your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc) from a website you visit. They are stored on your electronic device.

This is a type of cookie which is collected by Adobe Flash media player (it is also called a Local Shared Object) - a piece of software you may already have on your electronic device to help you watch online videos and listen to podcasts.

Yes there are a number of options available, you can set your browser either to reject all cookies, to allow only "trusted" sites to set them, or to only accept them from the site you are currently on.

However, please note - if you block/delete all cookies, some features of our websites, such as remembering your login details, or the site branding for your local newspaper may not function as a result.

The types of cookies we, our ad network and technology partners use are listed below:

Revenue Science ►

A tool used by some of our advertisers to target adverts to you based on pages you have visited in the past. To opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Google Ads ►

Our sites contain advertising from Google; these use cookies to ensure you get adverts relevant to you. You can tailor the type of ads you receive by visiting here or to opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Digital Analytics ►

This is used to help us identify unique visitors to our websites. This data is anonymous and we cannot use this to uniquely identify individuals and their usage of the sites.

Dart for Publishers ►

This comes from our ad serving technology and is used to track how many times you have seen a particular ad on our sites, so that you don't just see one advert but an even spread. This information is not used by us for any other type of audience recording or monitoring.

ComScore ►

ComScore monitor and externally verify our site traffic data for use within the advertising industry. Any data collected is anonymous statistical data and cannot be traced back to an individual.

Local Targeting ►

Our Classified websites (Photos, Motors, Jobs and Property Today) use cookies to ensure you get the correct local newspaper branding and content when you visit them. These cookies store no personally identifiable information.

Grapeshot ►

We use Grapeshot as a contextual targeting technology, allowing us to create custom groups of stories outside out of our usual site navigation. Grapeshot stores the categories of story you have been exposed to. Their privacy policy and opt out option can be accessed here.

Subscriptions Online ►

Our partner for Newspaper subscriptions online stores data from the forms you complete in these to increase the usability of the site and enhance user experience.

Add This ►

Add This provides the social networking widget found in many of our pages. This widget gives you the tools to bookmark our websites, blog, share, tweet and email our content to a friend.